I'd love to see the NHL implement back-to-back games involving the same teams in the same city on a regular basis. You can't do it all the time, but three or four times a year would be a welcome change. The Oilers and Ducks will faceoff again tonight after Anaheim won 3-1 last night.

If the Oilers were in a playoff race, not a draft positioning race, these two games would have been great, but I still think we will see a bit more animosity and emotion tonight, than if the Oilers were playing another team.

Yesterday the Oilers announced that forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been shut down for the season. He will undergo a fairly serious shoulder surgery that could take up to six months to heal.

I have been saying for a couple months that there was some issue with his shoulder. I know he took some time off before the World Junior tournament to rehab it, so it wasn't like I was really breaking a story, but even without that there were signs.

There was a time this year when we thought our tickets to the games tonight and tomorrow were quite the saavy investment. "It will be right at the end of the year" we cackled to ourselves as we looked at the schedule "it's going to be a circus."

Of course the Circus left town a good two weeks ago now and in its place the Misery Carnival has set up shop as it seems to do each and every year around this time.

The Edmonton Oilers procurement department is delivering an interesting and diverse group of young blue to the pro ranks these days. Oscar Klefbom (in photo) leads the way for the "mobile" defensemen of the future and the club added another with footspeed yesterday in Martin Gernat. Edmonton has also invested in big, gritty defense-first defenders. How important--for defensmen--is speed and ability to move the puck in today's NHL? Is it more important than grit, physical play and playing the enforcer role?